Here’s my Why Actionscript video for the 30onair series. ( You can see the youTube version here but it’s compressed to hell. )

The effect was created - serendipitously - by using a combination of bitmapData effects. The gist is to take two webCam video windows and place one on top of the other. Offsetting the top one by a few pixels x/y and giving it a blend mode of ‘difference’. Then create a BitmapData object that draws the content of the sprite holding both windows. Now use threshold and mix in a few blur filters and merging and you get the above - in realtime.

This is the core of the code that creates the effect:
private function onTic( e:TimerEvent ):void {
bmpDataSource.draw( camsHolder ); // this is the bitmap data inside the camsHolder
// applying a threshold to the bitmap data
bmpDataSource.threshold(bmpDataSource, rect, pt, ">", 0xFFbdbdbd, 0xFFFF0000, 0xFFFFFFFF, true );
// you can change the settings and order that these are applied to get
// lots of different effects. Some are really cool. A lot produce black screens
// you never know until you try. :-)
bmpDataSource.applyFilter( bmpDataSource, rect, pt, blurEffect );
bmpDataDisplay.copyPixels( bmpDataSource, rect, pt );
bmpDataDisplay.applyFilter( bmpDataDisplay, rect, pt, blurEffect );
bmpDataDisplay.merge( bmpDataSource, rect, pt, 0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF );
}

Here’s the full code. ( Something’s broken in the published setting. You have to use the leftNav to load the code views. )

And I also found what, I think, is a pretty good AIR theme song.

If you have a webcam you can see it in live action here.

Did you see the Master Chief’s helmet in there?